28 August 2009

Today had been a really hectic day for me and my wife. First we went to the Seri Kembangan clinic for Mia's monthly medical checkup. Then we went straight to KL city. Linda had to do some shopping while I wanted to renew both my regular & GDL driving license. Once I got to the JPJ counter at Maju Junction, the clerk told me I had to bring along the receipt from the clinic where I did the checkup for the GDL license renewal. Since when they enforce this new ruling, I have no idea. But I'm not about to travel back another 60 kilometers the get one lousy receipt to renew my GDL license. That have to wait. Nevermind that my GDL license expires next week.

Then we went to Tesco to do our monthly groceries shopping before going to The Mines to find myself a t-shirt for work.

After such a long day out and about, we finally picked up the kids around 7:00 PM. The kids were naturally ravished. I decided to bring the family for buka puasa at this new Island Red Cafe in Equine Park. We knew the cafe existed for quite some time but we never step our feet there yet before. We had a variety of menu for buka puasa which is strange for a cafe. I originally thought it was like Old Town or something which they are definitely not. Anyway, the highlight of our visit was when we found out that it was buffet style dinner and they charge RM28.00++ per head for adults and RM16:00++ for children. Altogether we paid over 60 ringgit for some lousy dinner. Even if the food were good, I'd had a tough time enjoying it after seeing the exorbitant bill.

Let this be a (really-really expensive) lesson for us all.

24 August 2009

Sometimes life is unfair to us. We don't always get what we want. Things don't happen the way we'd like it to be. That's life. You can't change that. The important thing is, what are we going to do about it?

My friend Bok (not his real name), I used to be in the same shoes as you. I joined this company at what you might call, the wrong time hence I was also not entitled to enjoy the annual bonus that the company give away. But I didn't whine or complaint to everyone. I just keep on doing my job, the best I can and sooner or later people will notice. Who knows if you're rezeki is there, you will get something. Like when I started here, I didn't get the full one month bonus. But me and my batch did got something from the management. It wasn't much, but hey at least we got something. And contrary from what you might heard, the company do cares about us.

So dude, you just hold on there ya?

22 August 2009

Today Muslims in many parts of the world will start fasting for the next 30 days or so. This morning, we woke up rather late around 5:30 AM so we just ate the quickest food my wife can fix in under 5 minutes. Hmm wonder what it is. Anyway, I didn't mind much what we had for sahur. I usually don't have much appetite to eat anyway in these wee hours of the morning.

For buka puasa today, my wife made a simple yet delicious chicken rice dish with some onde-onde. Nothing fancy or elaborate, besides the point of fasting for Muslims is to develop a sense of fraternity and solidarity so that we can feel and experience how needy and hungry humans feel being hungry all the time.

I just don't get it why some people like to waste their money going to lavish buffet dinner at hotels, cafes and restaurants during this month. Just how much they can eat anyway? To me, they totally missed the point of fasting in the first place. They'd be better off donating all their riches to mosques or orphanage or the needy than waste them in some fancy hotel.

21 August 2009

Some people are averse to change. They don't like to come out of their comfort zone and face new challenges. But change whether you like it will come, sooner or later, some time in your life. Those who embrace and adapt themselves to it will mostly succeed. Those who resist will likely be left behind.

At the beginning of the year, I got transferred from technical support to the procurement department. To be honest, I didn't exactly look forward for it when I first heard the news. But I accepted it anyway and quickly learned the ropes of my new department. Today after 8 months being in the procurement department, I was told to go back to my old department again. Just when I begin to feel comfortable in my current position and mastered almost all I need to know about procurement.

But then I'm just an employee so I need to follow orders whether I like it or not. Like some people, I don't usually like major changes in my life. But if they come, I won't run away or complain and whine about it. I'll just embrace it head on and go with the flow. My philosophy in work is, no matter where they put you at - do the best with your job. Heck even if they put me in finance or software department I won't complaint.

Being in the procurement department has it good and bad points. The good thing is you can sit at your table all day and do most of your work from there. You don't have to drive anywhere and meet anybody or carry and push really heavy stuff around. But the downside is, you have to worry about many more things in your head. When the supplier will reply with your quote, when will they will deliver your orders, do we have enough money to pay for the goods, when will our client pay all their debts with us and many-many more. If you think sitting at your desk all day long is easy, think again.

Being in technical support on the other hand, you don't have to worry too much about all those stuff. You come, you fix and you go home. Of course sometimes when the problem is beyond your knowledge or expertise you do get headache figuring out how to fix it but then you can always turn to somebody more expert or senior than you. But that in my experience, seldom happen. Yes you do go out more and do more physical stuff but at the end of the day, you go home happy and content without a care in the world.

So come Monday I guess I'll be claiming my old desk next to the window again. Sorry Bohari, you have no place in this office from now on. No desk for you la I mean. I'm sure he's a really happy guy having to work in Puncak Alam.

19 August 2009

Music Of The Day

Aizat - Kau aku mp3



Kau dan aku ,adalah satu
Tak kira apa
Segala rintihan aku ,engkau selalu ada
Biar kata memisah kita
Biarkan saja
Kerana terbiasa

Mengejar mimpi ,yang pasti akan aku
Sentiasa merasa kehilanganmu
Ku akan tunggu saat bertemu
Tiada henti
Walau dimana kita berdiri
Di dalam dunia ini
Biar sampai akhirnya nanti

Semua tak terang di mataku ,walau warnanya menyala
Ingin merasa namun aku takkan cuba
Biar kata memisah kita
Biarkan saja
Kerana terbiasa
Ooohhh.
Mengejar mimpi ,yang pasti akan aku
Sentiasa merasa kehilanganmu
Ku akan tunggu saat bertemu
Tiada henti
Walau dimana kita berdiri
Di dalam dunia ini
Biar sampai akhirnya nanti
Biar sampai akhirnya nanti
Ooohhh..Oohhh..Ooohhh

18 August 2009

A few weeks ago I copied a bunch of Korean TV series from somebody's hard drive and transferred them to my iPhone to watch in my free time. Almost a week of driving later, I finally finished watching one of the drama series - Coffee Prince.

Coffe Prince is a romantic comedy about a guy who fell in love with another guy which should make him gay, except that the guy is actually a girl who is rather tomboyish and often mistaken as a guy anyway. Sounds complicated? Let me elaborate.

Han Kyul (the hero), son of some rich family decides to open a cafe. His cafe is named Coffee Prince and he only hire dudes at his cafe, meaning to attract the ladies visitors. Eun Chan (the heroin) dressed and looked like a guy but is really a girl and most people can definitely tell at first glance (except for Han Kyul) get to work at Hyan Kul's cafe but never tell her employer her real gender.

Eventually after a series of events, the two got rather intimate together and even got to the point where they hugged and kissed although Han Kyul never realised that Eun Chan is a girl (which basically make him a gay) <- point stressed here. This TV series has 17 episodes and the hero didn't find out about the heroin's real status until the 10th episode which basically made the audience (i.e me) fuming mad with his idiocy. Once he found out that Eun Chan is a girl, he got understandably mad because she cheated (didn't tell the truth) him all these while. But he got over it gradually because Eun Chan kept on being so cute and later he introduced Eun Chan to his rich family (grandma & mother). His grandma initially hated Eun Chan guts but like all fairy tale like drama series, this one has a happy ending too. Oh yeah before that, Eun Chan who speak no English or Italian went to Milan to study coffee (like there's such a thing) and return 2 years later to be reunited with her boyfriend Han Kyul whose business is doing really well. And they lived happily ever after.

Normally I would stop watching these type of cheesy TV series after the first 2 episodes but since I waited for 2 days for my PC to convert the RMVB file to iPhone compatible MP4 H.264 format, it would be a real waste to delete them all. I was virtually pulling my hair waiting for Han Kyul to find out that Eun Chan is really a girl and I bet the audience was shouting curses to at the writer for making them wait so long. I can point a few other Korean actress who is much prettier than Yoon Eun Hye (Eun Chan) and the heroin, Gong Yoo looks suspiciously like my cousin Wan Mohd Azri who incidentally studied for 5 years in Korea also. Overall, not badlah but I don't recommend this one for the impatient ones.

16 August 2009

I spent the last few days cranking my head trying to finish my first 2 assignments, which I finally did last night. Last night also my family and I had a sleepover at my Mom's place in Serdang. This morning, I left as early as 7:00 in the morning for class. I got there understandably early, just before 8:00 and there was plenty of parking and nobody has arrived yet.

In class today, I found out one my assignment is not due until next month. So I finished mine way ahead of schedule. No wonder the others were puzzled to see my 2 assignments. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Better early than late.

I also found out we have a listening test and a little quiz in class today. The listening class was piece of cake but the other quiz was brain-wrecking. Although I studied a bit in the morning, there's no way I'm going to remember all those acronyms, abbreviations, dates and facts. I'm not alone though, so did everybody else. That's why during the quiz, many of the guys from 2nd row and back sneakily opened their text book or notes. Although I also sit at the back, my conscience prevented me from opening the book too, though I did take a peak at the guy next to me who copied everything from his textbook. Not surprisingly, he got almost full mark for this quiz. Hah, you just wait until the real exam.

After that some of us were very 'lucky' to be selected to present our assignment for the class. I felt rather 'unlucky' today so 5 other people had to present their assignment but not me. In the end, we got more assignment and work to do before our next seminar and TEST next month.

13 August 2009

These days, I don't really mind being stuck in a traffic jam or stopping at a prolonged period of time. Why? Because now I can spend those idle time watching movies or TV series on my iPhone which is attached to that cool holder over there.

No more wasting my time cursing at the traffic situation or staring at the cute girl next door. Simply a must have accessories for all iPhone users out there. Also for your convenience, get that handy travel charger to charge your iPhone on the go.

10 August 2009

If I could summarize today in one word it would be BAD DAY. It all started with the rain earlier this evening. I thought it's never going be really heavy so I didn't bother to move my car from my usual parking spot in front of the office which will turn into a makeshift monsoon drain during heavy downpour. But pour it did the rain today so just before the rain water get to sip into my car, I managed to park it to higher ground. But in the process, I got totally drenched wet.

And then there's a problem with the Internet connection at my office. I tried the usual reset the modem/router and rebooted the proxy server but nothing worked. In the end I had to call TM and they said there's something wrong with the Streamyx port. We had to wait until tomorrow before they send somebody over. When I finally hung up from TM, it was already 6:30 and I was officially late to pick up the kids and Linda.

There was already a huge traffic jam in front of my office because water overflowed onto the road but I never expected the road to be congested also all the way along the SKVE. I tried to cut through UPM but it's even worse there. How was I supposed to know it's graduation day in UPM today? Altogether, I was stuck in traffic for over an hour today. An hour, traffic jam, Serdang, unbelievable.

Oh and it's not over yet. When I reached home, almost a quarter of our living room is flooded with rain water. We knew there's a little leak on our ceiling but since the rain was so heavy today, it poured inside.

Just know all the lights went out and we sat in the dark for like 15 minutes.

Thankfully that's about it.

9 August 2009

Yesterday my friend Rizal asked me to join him for a jog at the Wetland Park in Putrajaya. Since he personally offered to pick me up and drive there, I just couldn't refuse. We went around 5:20PM and the park is largely deserted except for a few visitors. To be honest, I think Taman Bukit Jalil is a much better place to jog and exercise and it is much more happening there.

We ran for about 2 kilometers or so before we took a break on top of the watch tower. Beautiful view from up there.

8 August 2009

It is now time to do my assignments. And where better place to do them other than the library? That's why I spent nearly 4 hours at the National Library today, looking for articles and notes in books, journal and reports. It's time like this that I wish I had a laptop so that I can just type in all the notes instead of writing it down manually by hand which is so tiring.

It's been 3 years since I last went to this library and the place has changed considerably. First they don't use library cards anymore, you just show your I.D to borrow books. New registration is only 5 ringgit and renewal is free every 3 years. All you have to bring is a copy of your identity card. When I first went in, I couldn't find the regular books and shelves that I was used too. Apparently they moved them all upstairs. The ground floor is now filled with a few dozen computers where kids use to play online games or visit social networking sites. Quite a waste of resource if you think about it. But if it gets these kids to come to the library, at least that's a good thing.

7 August 2009

Tomorrow will be exactly 3 years since I started work here at my current company. I remembered then, nearly 2 months unemployed after I quit my last job and then suddenly I got hired out of the blue. Imagine my relief. I didn't get paid much then but something is always better than nothing, right? At least it's enough to put some food on the table and pay the bills. I started out as a little computer technician. Then upgraded to something slightly better. For now I'm the procurement guy but rumours has it I will be the technician guy once more, for a while at least. But that's just rumours. It might be nothing.

One thing for sure, I've learned a lot since I've been here. I can't thank you enough, my friends and my colleagues who have thought me so much all these while. And of course I had to thank the company for hiring me in the first place.

Before I worked here, there's only Adam, now we've got Mia. Before this we go everywhere on a bike. Now we've got a roof above our head. Before this I always shave my head bald and I weigh a ton. Well, actually almost a hundred kilos but as you can see, I'm a changed man now. When I stared work here, there's only 30 of us. Now it's double of that and we've also grown and acquired the building the door. As always there are some good times and there are some bad times. The important thing is we learn from the bad times and be grateful for the good times.

3 years might not be such a long time compared to some of the older guys here but half of the people who signed up together with me is gone now. I don't want to sound cocky but I don't usually like to change my jobs too often. I like to be at one place for a long period of time. As long the company treats me well and with respect, I will do my best for the company. Hopefully for many more years to come?

2 August 2009

Today is my second seminar at INTEC in Shah Alam. This time I came prepared and early. Brought all my modules and I arrived earlier than last time so I've got myself a nice parking spot near the class building and the best seat in the class. There was a sup rise test in class today for one of the subjects. We got to know about the test only 2 hours before so I suspect everybody was just as clueless as me in answering the questions. But in the end, the kind lecturer helped us to answer some of the questions in some subtle ways that I can't mention here he he. You've got to attend the class to know.

Now is the time for us to do assignments. We did one last time and in this class we get 2 more assignments to do before our next meeting on the 16th of August. The task itself is not that hard but for part timers like us, finding the time to go somewhere and find the materials for the assignment is quite a feat in our busy-busy life. But then again if you want to succeed in anything, you've got to work for it right?

1 August 2009

Today we had lunch at Dynasty Hotel near Jalan Ipoh in KL. But today will be most remembered for the anti-ISA rally near the Sogo shopping complex, Masjid Jamek and surrounding areas. I must salute all of you, the 20000 strong members of the public who showed up in KL today. You did the country proud. Likewise, I'm totally disgusted with the police force today. Had they shown the same tenacity and enthusiasm in keeping our home and streets safe from crooks and thugs, our country would be a much better place to live in by now. You all should be ashamed of yourself. And don't give me that 'we're just following orders' shit. You all have brain right?

I didn't join in the protest of course, for obvious reason. We had Adam & Mia with us today for the lunch and besides, my wife would have nothing of it. The funny things is, we actually wanted to stop by Sogo today to do some shopping but the train didn't even stop at 2 stations before and after the departmental store for security reasons. A historic day indeed and I just nearly become part of it.